Popular website reports Rockridge is #1 in the Bay for ‘creative class’ workers; Oakland #1 for ‘working class’

The Atlantic Cities blog has come out with a fascinating report on housing and class in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Using data from the American Community Survey, reporters Richard Florida and Sara Johnson have mapped out where members of the affluent “creative class” (read skilled professionals), “service class (“read hourly wage and service economy workers”) and the working class (“employed in factory jobs as well as transportation and construction”) live.

What’s the deal with Oakland? According to AC, the #1 location for creative class in the Bay is Rockridge, beating out the Presidio, Russian Hill and even Palo Alto (!!). In Rockridge, according to this report, 86.4 percent of the residents are in this high-income bracket and they live in an area that is right on a BART line, has 77 percent of all housing owner occupied (compared to a Bay Area cities average of 37 percent owner-occupied), and is 77 percent white.

Oakland also leads in what Florida and Johnson call “working class” residents. They report that half of the top working class tracts are in Oakland, and three are in East Oakland. According to Johnson and Florida, “The working class comprises 16.5 percent of the region’s workers, substantially less than the national average of 20.5 percent. These blue-collar workers average $46,540 per year in wages and salaries, substantially better than the national average of $34,015 but just half of what the metro’s creative class workers make.”

In other words, if you wondered at the people in Oakland who talk about the hills and the flats, or who describe how much poorer East Oakland is compared to Rockridge and Montclair, this research confirms what you already know to be true.